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Yes, it's time for me to bombard you with pictures of Mull again :-)
Saturday was a long day. I love going to Mull, but not so much the getting up at 5 a.m. to get to Oban in time for the 4 p.m. ferry! We actually got there just after 2 p.m. this time, as I've got rather better at negotiating the twisty roads through the Trossachs, so we had time to get some perishables in Tescos and go for a stroll along the harbour before it was time to embark.
I even took a few pictures there - McCaig's Tower which dominates the Oban skyline and King Neptune who lurks on the harbourside :-
We took bird feeders with us and one of the first to take advantage of them was this jolly fellow:-
It was horrendously windy on Saturday night, but by Sunday morning the weather had improved dramatically and we were surprised and delighted to see an otter eating a fish on the jetty just along from the cottage. Rob got pictures (and now wants a longer lens so that he can get better ones next time) and I'll post some of those later.
The otter disappeared when a boat pulled into the bay and started offloading passengers at the jetty, alas. But later we walked into the nearby town of Craignure and there was another otter (or possibly even the same one) fishing off the rocks in the harbour there!
We met this little chap on the way into Craignure. I'm not sure if he's a baby coo or a teddy bear!
There was a local produce market in the village hall that afternoon, and we bought a plant from the lady who owns Lip Na Cloiche on the shore of Loch Tuath.
The garden is quite close to Ulva Ferry where we were due to embark for the Puffin Expotition the next day, so we decided to call in and see it on the way. We weren't quite sure what to expect but it was a marvellous place - the owner has made a wonderful piece of garden art out of stuff that most people would consider rubbish - the garden is festooned with rusty metal artefacts and bits of silvery aged wood that meld in with the plants to make a wonderfully harmonious whole. Recycling at its best!
Here are a couple of pictures, but they really don't do it justice, especially when you consider that the whole thing has been done on a steep slope!
But where, I hear you cry, are the puffins? We was promised puffins, we was! It was raining a bit when we set off for Staffa and Lunga to see the Puffins, but that didn't see m to deter the jolly little chaps from pobbling about the cliffs and being terrifically puffiny, so without further ado, here they are.
Ready for my close-up, Mr Attenborough!
That's by no means all - more later!
I even took a few pictures there - McCaig's Tower which dominates the Oban skyline and King Neptune who lurks on the harbourside :-
We took bird feeders with us and one of the first to take advantage of them was this jolly fellow:-
It was horrendously windy on Saturday night, but by Sunday morning the weather had improved dramatically and we were surprised and delighted to see an otter eating a fish on the jetty just along from the cottage. Rob got pictures (and now wants a longer lens so that he can get better ones next time) and I'll post some of those later.
The otter disappeared when a boat pulled into the bay and started offloading passengers at the jetty, alas. But later we walked into the nearby town of Craignure and there was another otter (or possibly even the same one) fishing off the rocks in the harbour there!
We met this little chap on the way into Craignure. I'm not sure if he's a baby coo or a teddy bear!
There was a local produce market in the village hall that afternoon, and we bought a plant from the lady who owns Lip Na Cloiche on the shore of Loch Tuath.
The garden is quite close to Ulva Ferry where we were due to embark for the Puffin Expotition the next day, so we decided to call in and see it on the way. We weren't quite sure what to expect but it was a marvellous place - the owner has made a wonderful piece of garden art out of stuff that most people would consider rubbish - the garden is festooned with rusty metal artefacts and bits of silvery aged wood that meld in with the plants to make a wonderfully harmonious whole. Recycling at its best!
Here are a couple of pictures, but they really don't do it justice, especially when you consider that the whole thing has been done on a steep slope!
But where, I hear you cry, are the puffins? We was promised puffins, we was! It was raining a bit when we set off for Staffa and Lunga to see the Puffins, but that didn't see m to deter the jolly little chaps from pobbling about the cliffs and being terrifically puffiny, so without further ado, here they are.
Wheee!
What are you doing in there? Come on, it's dinner time!
Sneaking!Ready, steady....
Hmmm...maybe we should move the dining table a little to the right?
Fight!
Ready for my close-up, Mr Attenborough!
That's by no means all - more later!
calm
More please!
Incidentally, I know you're rather fond of Gordon Ramsay, but I can't forgive him for once eating a puffin :-(
You really don't need a long lens for the puffins - they simply don't care about humans at all and as long as you lie down, so as not to compress the burrows, you can get really close to them.
Great shot of the little tit, and the Hielan' Coolet. He does look like a soft toy, much as Mum used to make in great profusion.
The puffin pictures are classics, especially the takeoff/landing ones (how those little wings can lift that comparatively heavy body is astonishing), the fighting two (I assume they weren't canoodling!), the expression on the sneaking one's face, and the last one - no doubt they're quite used to prone photographers by now:-)
The Coliseum?
McCaig's Tower was actually an early job creation scheme - it was intended to provide work for stonemasons who often became unemployed in the winter months. The plan was for it to become a museum and art gallery eventual, but it was never finished. I think they ran out of money.
Thanks for the kind words about the puffins - they're quite hard to catch with their wings open, they move them incredibly fast, which I suspect explains how they manage to fly :-)
They don't seem at all worried by people, regardless of how big a camera lens they might be using :-) They were much more concerned (as well they might be) about the big gulls patrolling the cliffs, looking for the weak and unwary...
That's the one.
I reckon the masons were pretty lucky to have a philanthropist handy in the person of McCaig. I doubt there were very many like-minded people around on the islands then.
Being a plane geek, they remind me of the Lockheed F-104 Starfighter, which was very fast, with a big fuselage and tiny wings, and was very hairy to fly, with many crashes.
I took my userpic with my little Fuji 2800Z, from a range of about three feet; the puffin just ignored me. On Skomer, there are roped-off walkways on part of the island, and the birds keep (mostly) to their side, and the people to theirs.
Sadly, there were some skeletons lying around, so the gulls and the buzzards must have been lucky sometimes.